English modal verbs

The modal verbs of English are a small class of auxiliary verbs used mostly to express modality (properties such as possibility, obligation, etc.). They can be distinguished from other verbs by their defectiveness (they do not have participle or infinitive forms) and by the fact that they do not take the ending -(e)s in the third-person singular.

The principal English modal verbs are can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will and would. Certain other verbs are sometimes, but not always, classed as modals; these include ought, had better, and (in certain uses) dare and need. Verbs which share some but not all of the characteristics of the principal modals are sometimes called "semimodals".

Modal verbs and their features

The verbs customarily classed as modals in English have the following properties:

Colbie Caillat

Colbie Marie Caillat (ⁱ/ˈkoʊlbi kəˈleɪ/; born May 28, 1985) is an American pop singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist from Malibu, California. She debuted in 2007 with Coco, which included hit singles "Bubbly" and "Realize". In 2008, she recorded a duet with Jason Mraz, "Lucky", which won a Grammy. Caillat released her second album, Breakthrough, in August 2009. Breakthrough was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2010 Grammy Awards. She was also part of the group that won Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammys for her background vocals and writing on Taylor Swift's Fearless album.

Caillat has sold over 6 million albums worldwide and over 10 million singles. In 2009, she was named Billboard magazine's 94th-best-selling music artist of the 2000s. In 2011, she released her third studio album, All of You. On October 23, 2012 she released her first Christmas album, Christmas in the Sand.

Life and career

1985–2006: Childhood and youth

Caillat was born in Malibu, California, and grew up in Newbury Park, California. Her father, Ken Caillat, co-produced Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (1977) and Tusk (1979) albums. When she was an infant, her parents gave her the nickname "Coco", which she would later name her debut album. Caillat took piano lessons as a child, but lacked significant inspiration until she turned 11 years old, when she became enthralled with Lauryn Hill's performance in Sister Act 2. She realized that she wanted to be a singer, and began taking vocal lessons, performing onstage for the first time in sixth grade. Since then she has covered the Roberta Flack song "Killing Me Softly", which had previously been covered by Lauryn Hill, and Hill's own "Tell Him".

Jason Mraz

Jason Thomas Mraz (/məˈræz/; born June 23, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter who first came to prominence in the San Diego coffee shop scene in 2000. In 2002, he released his debut studio album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)". With the release of his second album, Mr. A-Z, in 2005, Mraz achieved major commercial success. The album peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 100,000 copies in the US. In 2008, Mraz released his third studio album, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. It debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 and was an international commercial success primarily due to the hit "I'm Yours". The song peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving him his first top ten single, and spent a then-record 76 weeks on the Hot 100. His fourth album, Love Is a Four Letter Word, peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200, his highest-charting album to date.

Mraz has won two Grammy Awards and received two additional nominations, and has also won two Teen Choice Awards, a People's Choice Award and the Hal David Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. He has earned Platinum and multi-Platinum certifications in over 20 countries, and has toured in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and parts of Africa. As of July 2014, Mraz has sold over seven million albums, and over 11.5 millions digital singles. His musical style, from rhythmic feeling to his use of nylon string guitars, has been heavily influenced by Brazilian music.

Christina Grimmie

Christina Victoria Grimmie, (born March 12, 1994), known on YouTube as zeldaxlove64, is an American singer-songwriter known for participating in The Voice and for her covers of hit songs by contemporary pop musicians. In June 2011, she released her debut EP, Find Me. In June 2012, she told a reporter that she wanted to stop doing covers and start writing only original music.

In 2014, Grimmie participated in Season 6 of NBC's singing competition, The Voice and finished in third place. Adam Levine, her coach on the show, announced in the finale that regardless of the results, he was signing Grimmie to his label, 222 Records. Justin Bieber and Lil Wayne also supported Grimmie on the show and Lil Wayne offered to sign Grimmie on his label, Young Money Entertainment. She signed to Island Records for a short time before being dropped by them.

Early life

Grimmie grew up in Marlton, New Jersey. She is of Italian and Romanian descent. Her father noticed her talent for singing when she was six years old and she started playing the piano at age ten Despite having received piano lessons, she says she plays by ear. In a number of her videos and interviews, Grimmie identifies herself as a Christian. Grimmie was homeschooled for her junior year in 2010.